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Category Archives: UnBook

So there I was, minding my own business (which means creepily reading everyone else’s business on Twitter/Facebook/Google+/Friendster?) and I ran across my main man Chris from Kitestring posting a link to a daily deal for a salon in town:

Being knee deep in writing about awesome/unawesome brands for my next book (due out September 2012) I had just submitted my 60,000 word file to my editor of awesome, Shannon Vargo at Wiley.

And then Budweiser Canada farked it all up for me and went and made one of the greatest Superbowl commercials of all-time. I’m already a Bud Light Lime freak and then this happened.

For the 3 people that don’t know, hockey is life in Canada. I don’t even play and it still holds a special place in my heart. You don’t even have to like the sport to love this. When I saw this video today, it connected on a level that most brands try but never ever reach.

+Note this post is about how ridiculously amazing I’ve been treated by a company, but fair disclosure, I got an awesome compensation package to be part of their campaign. Seriously, cash and ice cream. Cash. Ice cream. Ya, amazing.+

There are countless blog posts online about how out of touch PR people are with trying to reach influential bloggers/social media types. From mass-emailed blind press releases to not understanding how social media really works.

I don’t know how authors did it years ago. You pour your heart and soul into a book, it hits the shelves and you hope people like it.

I’m such a spaz that I don’t think I could handle the lack of immediate validation and/or rejection.

I’ve been amazed since UnMarketing came out. The immediacy and coolness of tools has blown my mind. Waking up everyday and reading tweets in real time about people reading the book makes me smile. Every. Day. It’s the passive conversation our readers are having with each other that was untappable (my new word) previously.

I have a morning ritual that I know many of you share. Coffee around here is a bit like a religion. You choose your brand, you pick your favorite, and then you stick with it. In the Toronto area, Tim Horton’s is the church of coffee. It is a part of the culture up here, part of the vocabulary. When you say you’re going for coffee you go to ‘‘Tim’s’’ or you’re going to go to ‘‘Horton’s’’

I remember 25 years ago I loved leafing through three big books: Encyclopedia Britannica, The Big Book of Amazing Facts and the Yellow Pages. Maybe it was my lack of friends in grade 3, avoidance of people commenting on my bulbous head, or just a general interest in things that made me want to go through them, but I would sit there for hours.

Almost 10 years ago I picked the name “UnMarketing” for my company for many reasons. One of them was that I could see it on a book cover. The name jumped out at me, and down the road hoping it would grab attention on the cluttered shelves of the bookstore.

Fast-forward to today. It’s happened. I signed the book deal and even have a potential cover that may also double as a guide on how to market to the United Nations.